Alternative low-carbon fuels

Lehigh Cement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Apart of the Prince Edward County landscape for many years the Lehigh Cement plant is hoping to take a positive step forward to improve its environmental footprint. It’s no secret the production of cement and concrete is a very energy intensive process, and Lehigh Cement is a large emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). “Cement and concrete, one of the mostly used and needed building materials, is also emitting greenhouse gases and that’s simply due to this process and its fuels we are using,” explained Picton Plant Manager, Carsten Schraeder. “To mitigate, at least partially this effect, our plan is to start using alternative low-carbon fuels to replace our fossil fuels in the future.” Lehigh Cement Company (Lehigh Hanson) is part of a larger group, Heidelberg Cement Group (operating in 50 countries) which allows for the use of coal, petcoke and natural gas for the production of clinker.

Nick Papanicolaou, Environmental Manager with Lehigh Cement Company in Picton, gave a virtual deputation to the Environmental Advisory Committee last Tuesday on the proposed alternative low-carbon fuel (ALCF) use at the plant in a first presentation of its kind to the public. In his presentation, Papanicolaou noted adopting lowcarbon fuels is a key component of the plant’s sustainability commitment, and he spoke about the use of ALCFs at the Picton plant located on County Road 49. He spoke to the decision to use ALCFs and the Ontario Regulation (79/15) on alternative low-carbon fuels (under the Environmental Protection Act) under which Lehigh must comply and operate. He also outlined the permitting process, the types of ALCFs and the timeline for their plans.

Papanicolaou explained that many cement plants throughout the world have been adopting the use of ALCF and it is now a state-of-the-art technology and it is widely accepted to be applied for reducing GHG emissions. The process to adopt ALCFs at the Picton plant is one that must be undertaken in accordance with various provincial government regulations, including approval by the Ministry at the federal level, as well advising the municipality and the public of their intentions. Papanicolaou explained how Lehigh Cement have to apply to be able use alternative fuels, where he says the regulations define the framework, controls and technical testing requirements through a series of consultations, as well as compliance and permit applications. “We must demonstrate that we can reduce our GHGs and that we have done a thorough consultation process with various stakeholders.”

Four types of low-carbon fuels are being considered by Lehigh Cement. One comes from construction and demolition materials, primarily wood and minor amounts of non-recyclable plastics. “Also, ALCF coming from industrial and commercial institutional materials, primarily non-recyclable papers, non-recyclable plastics and textiles, but also include wood and tire fluff,” said Papanicolaou. He noted while tires are not eligible, tire fluff—which is the non-recyclable component in a tire and would otherwise go to a landfill—can be included. Another is the film combustible fraction of non-recyclable household waste, otherwise known as refuse derived fuels, plastics and other non-recycled components of waste. “Also, discarded treated seeds are something that from time-to-time may become available.”

Utilizing these fuels would require the installation of some conveyance equipment and some minor storage. “It’s important to note that we are not entertaining the processing of these fuels,” added Papanicolaou. He said the fuels would come pre-processed ready for use at the facility. “We would not be processing these fuels onsite, so we would not be receiving any bulk materials, we would receive these materials as a fuel ready for use.”

Councillor John Hirsch said it was good to see Lehigh pursing alternatives to other fuels, but noted all of the alternative fuels described have their own issues in terms of the potential for emissions and harmful chemicals. “What kind of scrubbing or cleaning of the exhaust plants do you have?” asked Hirsch. Papanicolaou said the utilization of any these fuels has a requirement that you must reduce your greenhouse gases and still maintain compliance. “The cement process is much different than an incinerator and our process primarily makes lime, which is a very good scrubber and traps any component which would otherwise go in a stack in the incinerator and becomes part of our product,” he explained. ”Our process is very much built and has proven to be reliable in the use of alternative fuels in many other jurisdictions.“ Hirsch also addressed the refuse derived fuel. “How much were you hoping to use of that or where it might come from?“ he asked.

Ray Nobles, Alternative Fuels Manager from the US corporate office said there are currently no facilities that produce a refuse derived fuel in the Ontario market. “That is something we see primarily in Europe and a little in western Canada,” said Nobles. “It is something that we want to add in here in case it becomes available at some future date,” he said. “It does take residential waste drain streams and it runs it through a sorting process where anything in it can be recycled.” He said the metals are removed and anything leftover that is a non-recycled grade plastic or paper is then moved over to the fuel side. “It is a fairly complex process where everything is sorted and put into different categories, and it still goes to landfill, where some goes to fuel and others go to recycling.”

Schraeder elaborated further on other actions they are doing now to reduce CO2. “We are producing a lot of limestone cement, so we are adding 10 to 13 per cent of limestone to the cement,“ he said. “There is no CO2 at all being produced and this has been very successful in last two or three years; we are almost at 85 percent limestone cement now, so we have eliminated 10 to 12 per cent of our CO2.” Schraeder further explained that Lehigh makes use of the heat they are using as the heat produced by the kiln is used to dry raw materials. ”Also, looking at using part of our fossil or coal petcoke, we would like to replace with natural gas, which already has a substantial amount of less CO2 than coal and petcoke, so we are working on different areas and ideas to reduce our CO2 partially already executed and partially in process right now,” explained Schraeder.

The first of two public meetings is expected to take place at the end of March or early April. A formal application will be submitted to the Ministry in July with approval, if granted, expected by the end of 2022 or mid-2023. Further details can be found at lehighpictonalcf.ca (expected to be active soon).